Lego Marshmallow Pops

I saw the image of these Lego pops on Bakerella’s site, made by a woman named Amy who blogs at www.livinglocurto.com. Hers were adorable and looked like they came directly from a bakery or specialty store. I just had to give it a try for my son’s Lego-themed birthday party. http://www.livinglocurto.com/2010/06/lego-cake-pops/

As with many things I make, the end result isn’t flawless, but the idea comes across well enough that 7 year olds recognized these as Lego minifigure heads so I’d consider it a success! I got a kick out these smiling yellow heads so that counts for something too.

I happened to use vanilla candy coating that I tinted yellow because those were the ingredients I had on hand. I think, next time, I would suggest using yellow chocolate candies designed for melting. I’ve had better luck with the consistency of the melted chocolate rather than the candy coating.

Here’s what I did:

First put the marshmallows on the sticks. I did two versions: the first time through I melted a small bit of white chocolate and dipped the end of the stick into the chocolate before poking it into the marshmallow. The second time I skipped that step and my marshmallow heads were no less sturdy because of it.

I liked Amy’s idea of using small marshmellows for the tops of the heads, but I chose to use smarties because the concave top of the smarties reminded me of the Lego piece. Dab a small bit of chocolate or candy coating on the top of the marshmallow and let the smarties dry for a few minutes.

Next you’ll need to melt the chocolate or candy coating. I used the microwave method, microwaving in 30 second increments on half power. This next step caused me a bit of trouble: coloring my vanilla candy coating to the right shade of yellow. As soon as I added the food coloring, the mixture seized up (it must be close in composition to regular chocolate). I was able to remedy the issue with a small bit of shortening but not before having a small moment of panic!

Dip the marshmallow in the coating and tap any excess off but gently tapping the stick on the side of the bowl. Allow to dry before adding a face. I used icing but think an edible marker (why didn’t I buy that when I saw it at the craft store?!) would have been more successful.

I created a makeshift drying area by making holes in a cardboard box and allowing the pops to dry while standing up. It needs a few improvements that would help the pops stand vertically, but for the time being it worked.

Even more fun would be to let the kids draw faces on the pops themselves. For you skilled decorators, what about adding hair or hats made of fondant? The kids could customize their pops and even make images of themselves. Well I’ll save that experiment for another time. For today’s party this did the trick and was a cute addition to the party favors.